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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Summer is under way, with its barbecues, parades, beach trips – and higher gas prices. And Angelenos recently found themselves paying a dizzying 11 cents more for every gallon – in an area that already ranks among the top five in the nation for high gas prices.

As a business owner who operates an all-natural gas fleet, we will avoid the fluctuations of summer gas prices, but our customers will feel the impacts.

Meanwhile, with $44 billion in profits last year, the oil companies’ grip on the industry affects our personal savings and business operations, and the nation’s economy. To be sure, gas prices rise and fall for many reasons, but one dangerous constant is that here in California, in particular, large oil companies are increasingly consolidated, reducing competition and generating concerns that consumers have ever-fewer defenses.

In a positive sign for United States energy consumption, a new report shows that the market share of renewable energy sources grew at a larger pace than fossil fuels for the year 2012. Additionally, the first half of this year has seen an enormous surge in renewable energy infrastructure and generating capacity.

For 2012, a decline in the cost of solar and wind infrastructure is partly credited with the surge in use. The International Energy Agency is now feeling more optimistic that renewable sources of energy could make up as much as 25% of global electricity generation by the year 2018.

And in another positive step for America, consumer energy consumption fellsignificantly in 2012, although that was in the wake of increased consumption from corporations.

Nine companies have been fined for filing late or inadequate reports about their greenhouse gas emissions as required by the state, California air regulators announced.

The companies included Exxon Mobil Corp., which was fined $120,000 for filing late and inaccurate data on its Torrance refinery and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which agreed to pay $20,000 for delays in reporting emissions it generates as a natural gas supplier.

Whether you’re rollerblading along Venice Beach, downing a prawn or 12 at San Francisco’s Pier 33, or shagging foul balls at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, the West Coast of the United States offers up thousands of miles of coastline and hundreds of iconic locales to match. More importantly, 39 percent of America’s population, some 123 million people, call America’s coastline home, a number that’s expected to rise 20 million by 2020, according to NOAA.

But the West Coast we all know and love may be under as much as 25 feet of water in the years to come. National Geographic reports that Global Mean Sea Levels have risen 4 to 8 inches over the past century, and more alarmingly, the rate at which the sea-level rises has doubled over the past 20 years.